August 12, 2012
Planting Seeds of Life
- Ephesians 4:25-5:2
- Dr. Teri Thomas
It has been a bad summer for growing cucumbers. And tomatoes. And flowers. It’s been a bad summer for all our plants. But it’s been a good summer for growing hostility. A good summer for raising conflict. A good summer for reaping violence.
While on vacation I read about a confrontation at a Westside athletic field, a prearranged fight between groups of young women, ending with six people shot and one, a 22-year-old dead. On July 20, a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killed 12 people and injured 58 others. Since late July there have been comments ranging from rude to hateful flying like bullets around Chick-fil-A in response to the fast-food chain’s president, Dan Cathy’s remarks against gay marriage and homosexuality. Chicken sales and gun sales both increased this month. Then just last Sunday seven people, including a gunman, were killed in a shooting at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee in what police are treating as an act of domestic terrorism. Talk radio and cable TV are full of politicians, their supporters, and their detractors throwing verbal hand grenades at each other.
It has been a long, hot summer in more ways than one.
Hostility, hatred and violence are sprouting up everywhere.
Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, said, "That one plant should be sown and another be produced cannot happen; whatever seed is sown, a plant of that kind comes forth." Jesus made the same point using a tree and fruit, and Paul made a similar statement: Whatever we sow we will reap.
If they're right, we need to ask ourselves: What seeds have we been planting? What are we planting to produce this nasty and bloody harvest?
Contemporary Christian author/theologian Brian McLaren has just written a new book called,
Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? (Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World). McLaren says, "In researching my book, I came to an unexpected conclusion: The tensions between our conflicted religions arise not from our differences, but from one thing we all hold in common: an oppositional religious identity that draws strength from hostility."
By hostility he means opposition, the sense that the other is the enemy. Hostility makes one unwilling to be a host (the two words are historically related). The other must be turned away, kept at a distance as an unwanted outsider, not welcomed in hospitality as a guest or friend. Hostility is an attitude of exclusion, not embrace; of repugnance, not respect; of suspicion, not extending the benefit of the doubt; of conflict, not conviviality.
Hostility is a great short-cut to building identity. If we know whom we hate, whom we fear, whom we resent, whom we consider inferior, whose wrongs we will never forget, we know -- or we feel we know -- who we are. Religious and political leaders routinely build identity this way. Even families do it. Because it works. And fast.
When we plant hostility in the field of identity, the seeds will grow. That acreage will produce hatred, conflict and eventually violence.
If we want to stop prejudice and hatred from being served with our fast food, if we want to stop shootings in theaters and houses of worship, if we want to be imitators of God beloved children,
living in love, McLaren says-“we'd better start paying attention to the seeds of hostility we're sowing in our theaters and houses of worship -- and in our political speeches, on our cable news shows, in our blogs (and comment sections), and even around our dinner tables.”
Today’s Gospel passage for the third week in a row continues Jesus conversations about the bread of life. Today Jesus is inviting everyone to eat the living bread. In this passage Jesus reminds us three times that he himself is the bread of life or the living bread. If we are to dine with Jesus we need to remember that we are not the only guests. When we read the life of Jesus we see that he ate with anyone, rich or poor, saint or sinner. Who he associated with was even a subject of town gossip. We are invited to dine with all sorts of people. Jesus invites us to share life with all sorts of people, not just our friends or those we agree with. Dinner with Jesus will stretch our acceptance limits.
So those of us who eat this bread, eat at our own peril:
We cannot eat of this bread and forget what Jesus said.
We cannot eat of this bread and walk away from the way he lived.
We cannot eat of this bread and go on with life as usual.
Ephesians describes in clear detail behaviors that nourish us and those that will starve us. We are called to behave in ways that bring joy and health, not to ourselves, but to others. Lying, stealing, bitterness, slander, grudge-taking, and so forth destroy community, cutting us off from God’s intention. But when we are able imitate Christ, we join ourselves to the vine. In connecting with God’s vine, we receive everything we need to flourish and serve one another.
Ephesians says “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear…Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another.”
We try, but we continue to plant those seeds of hostility.
We are quick to protest "It's not about hate."
"it's about religious freedom."
“it’s about freedom of speech.”
“it’s about behaviors not people.”
From a Christian standpoint, to say something is "not about hate" is a pretty low standard. We can always claim our actions are not born of hate. We hear it all the time.
They don't "hate" blacks, they just wish they'd keep to themselves or simply disappear.
Some claim they don't hate Mexicans, they just wish we had stronger immigration laws
and a long fence at the border.
They don't hate Muslims; they just don't want a mosque in their neighborhood.
They don't hate Sikhs; they just wished they didn't look like Muslims.
They don’t hate gays, they just hate the way they want to live.
They don't hate women; they just wish they'd stop yammering so much about their "rights."
This is why Jesus' commandment to his followers – to "love one another" – it was stated in the positive. Jesus didn't say, "don't hate one another"; his commandment was to "love." Love is the standard.(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wallace-best-phd/chick-fil-a-and-the-standard-of-love_b_1756776.html) Love is the seed that has to be planted.
If we claim our identity in Christ, if we know ourselves as members of a body, how can we be at war with one another? If we truly belong to one another and to the Body of Christ, how can we, hurt one another with angry words and actions?
As he researched his book, Brian McLaren came to at least one conclusion with which I find myself agreeing-“We are increasingly faced with a choice, that choice is not between kindness and hostility, we have a choice between kindness and nonexistence.”
Jesus is the bread of life. Whoever eats of this bread, will live forever.
Amen.
Brain McLaren quotes are all taken from “A Fertile Summer for Violence,” @ www.HuffingtonPost/religion/